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Quote by T.S. Eliot

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Four Quarters

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T.S. Eliot

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“Clearly, we once knew with intuitive clarity that which we can no longer remember. In today’s culture we take the package for the content, the vehicle for the precious cargo. We attribute reality to physical phenomena while taking their meanings to inconsequential fantasies. By extricating ‘reality’ from mind, materialism has sent the significance of nature into exile. With the pathetic grin of hubris stamped on our foolish faces, we carefully unwrap the package and then proceed to throw away its contents while proudly storing the empty box on the altar of our ontology. What a huge stash of empty boxes have we accumulated! Idols of stupidity they are; public reminders of a state of affairs that would be hilarious if it weren't tragic.”

“Immaterial essence is the primary quality; its “material” appearance is the secondary quality (primary quality to Locke), while the sensations are tertiary. The primary quality is the absolute quality of the Being (present yet immaterial and invisible). The secondary quality is the world as unaware information (unaware “awareness”)—perception and awareness cause the tertiary quality. Secondary and tertiary qualities are the result and degrees of the living mind (immaterial essence) in action.”

“Since almost everything we see (or do not see) is a matter of “convention,” we can say that all we see is the result of our perception. The picture of “reality” and the world depends on our perception. Although we all see the same things (with slight differences measured in nuances), the same colors, and the same shapes, this does not change the fact that it all results from our perception. On the other hand, we are not the creators of our perceptions but the beneficiaries. The only difference we make is in the endless nuances and possibilities despite the limits of our perceptive powers.”

“[...] For those who think (create), reality has no mysteries. The underlying notion of reality is a creative process attributable to the Absolute, going to transform the immutability characteristic of identity into a "dynamic" concept". For Bergson, "existence is the victory over nothing", while the non-being, according to logic, is not, by its very definition. Perhaps, the priority of humankind shall be understanding thoroughly the idea of nothing, in order to properly define the borders and limits of being.”